Poker MTT Tournament Bankroll

Short Answer: 100 Buyins

If you’re looking for a quick answer, the most commonly used number for MTT bankroll questions is 100 buyins.

Long Answer

There are a lot of things that can change the optimum size of your bankroll but this is the most popular number for players who want to continue playing poker indefinitely without having to reload their accounts.

The proper size for a multi-table tournament bankroll depends on three main factors:

• Your win rate

• The average number of players in your tournaments

• Your goals in poker

If you’re anything like the average BeatNoLimit.com visitor, you’re probably at least a semi-serious poker player and would like to avoid reloading your poker account all the time. In your case, the best number to go buy is 100 buyins.

That means that if you have a $1,000 bankroll, you should be playing in $10 MTTs. This is a very conservative number but you need to remember that tournament poker is a very swingy game.

The payouts are so heavily weighted towards the top 5 finishers in an MTT that your winrate is directly affected by how often you finish in the top 5 spots. This doesn’t happen very often so it takes a long time for your skill and variance to even out.

As a result, your bankroll will go through a rollercoaster of ups and downs during the short term. There will be long droughts followed by sudden huge wins that take your bankroll from anemic to massive in just a single night.

It’s extremely difficult to determine your winrate for MTTs because it takes a huge sample size to get within a reasonable estimate of your actual tournament winrate. You will have to play thousands of tournaments to even get a decent idea of your true winrate.

Best Poker Site for MTTs:

The average number of players in your tournaments affects how “swingy” your winrate is. If you play in tournaments that only have 100 players or so, you’ll win smaller amounts more often. If you play in tournaments that usually have 2,000 players, you’ll win larger amounts more infrequently and need a bigger bankroll to survive the short term droughts.

Your goals in poker should also play an important role in determining your multi table tournament bankroll requirements. Casual players who don’t mind reloading every once in a while can play on as big or little bankroll as they wish. If you’re serious about your game, you’ll want a much larger bankroll.

One advantage of keeping a certain bankroll is that it makes it easier to track your progress as a player. You’ll know exactly how much money you are winning/losing and can watch your bankroll grow as you improve your skills and get more experience under the belt.

When you tournament bankroll drops below 100 buy-ins for the level of tournament you play, it’s a smart idea to move down in stakes until you build your bankroll back up. Moving down in stakes is never fun, but it’s important nevertheless. Besides, moving down is way more fun than going broke.

Even the best poker players go broke when they don’t adhere to strict bankroll management guidelines. Nobody is immune to variance but there is one surefire way to keep yourself safe at all times: always play within your bankroll.

Related Articles:

Basic MTT Strategy

Early Stage Tournament Strategy

Middle Stage Tournament Strategy

Late Stage Tournament Strategy